She reportedly said: “I like lots of local meat. I don’t think we should be in the business of prescribing to people how they should run their diets.

“Who would I be to sit there advising people in the country coming home after a hard day of work to not have steak and chips?”

According to the BBC, she suggested a government that advised people not to eat meat would be a “nanny state” and even refused to confirm whether she agreed with conclusions that the consumption of emissions-intensive foods such as beef needed to be reduced.

She instead argued the benefits of reducing agricultural emissions, planting more trees and investing in carbon-capture technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the environment.